A homeowner’s roofing nightmare has gone viral on Threads after a contractor reportedly tore apart the wrong house—leaving a neighboring home partially stripped while the intended customer’s roof remained untouched.
The incident was shared by photographer Sarah Rohrbach (@earthtosarahphoto) in a Threads post on February 19, which has since amassed 723,000 views. In the post’s caption, Rohrbach described the startling phone call she received from the roofing company scheduled to replace her roof that day.
“We were supposed to get our roof replaced today and they just called saying they tore it all apart. Our roof is untouched. THEY WENT TO THE WRONG HOUSE AND TORE THEIR ROOF OFF. GUYS,” Rohrbach wrote.
According to Rohrbach, the mistake didn’t just end with the realization that the crew had gone to the wrong address. In follow‑up comments, she said the situation escalated after she spoke again with the neighbors later that night and learned more details about how the roofing company responded.
View on Threads
In a later comment, Rohrbach explained that the company had only removed part of the neighbor’s roof, learning that roughly half of the shingles had been torn off. She said the contractor told her that the roofer planned to offer the neighbors “half the roof for free” but would not submit a bid for the remaining portion of the roof because of the mistake.
According to another later comment, the neighbors said the roofer later offered to complete the entire roof for $8,000—down from an original $9,000 offer—but the neighbors chose not to respond to the message. According to Rohrbach, the neighbors did not want to use the roofer unless the entire roof was completed for free.
The following morning, Rohrbach said she and her husband asked the roofing company to speak with them before any work began on their own home. In another comment, she wrote that they told the contractor they could no longer trust the company and felt the neighbors were being taken advantage of amid the confusion.
“They are coming to get their trailer soon and we are going to accept a different roof bid,” Rohrbach wrote, adding that their neighbors were also seeking outside estimates. She noted that while the roofers appeared to understand the situation, one individual raised his voice slightly while speaking with her husband. “Feeling good in the decision to NOT use them at all,” she added.
The viral post comes amid a surge in home improvement spending in the United States in recent years, raising the stakes when projects go wrong.
According to a survey by Houzz, the home design website, the median amount spent on home renovations increased by 60 percent between 2020 and 2023, rising from $15,000 to $24,000.
The report found that kitchens continue to be the most commonly renovated interior room, with 29 percent of homeowners undertaking kitchen projects, followed by guest bathrooms and primary bathrooms at 27 percent and 25 percent, respectively.
Living room renovations were also popular, with about one in five homeowners—21 percent—reporting projects in that space. The Houzz survey noted that median spending for kitchen and primary bathroom renovations rose again in 2023, increasing by 20 percent and 11 percent to reach $24,000 and $15,000, respectively.
‘This Is Insane’
Viewers on Threads were sympathetic towards the homeowners and stunned by the absurdity of the situation.
User @mariahadventures said: “This is insane actually.”
User @organized_adventurer wrote: “Omg. did the people who just had their roof torn off not notice when there were people ripping it off or did they notice and just decide to pretend not to for a free roof?”
User @soonergirrl said: “I hope they stand firm and tell them no.”
User @onesillyassgirl noted: “I know this is not funny. But perhaps in a year or two, you’ll be laughing as much as I am right now.”
Newsweek has contacted the original poster for comment via Threads.
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